Swampscott Narrows Police Chief Search To 2 Finalists

SWAMPSCOTT, MA — More than six months after Ron Madigan's retirement as the Chief of Police in Swampscott, the town is nearing a hopeful conclusion in its search for a permanent chief.

Town Administrator Sean Fitzgerald told Patch on Monday that a screening committee of town educational, religious, civic and community leaders met with semifinalist candidates on Thursday with two finalists chosen out of that group.

Fitzgerald said he will meet with those two finalists this week and present a recommendation for hire to the Select Board in the next couple of weeks.

This is the first major hire for the town since it ended the practice of civil service hiring through a vote of town meeting.

With the ability to go beyond the civil service system, Fitzgerald said the town was able to engage in a broader search process that included a much stronger likelihood for more diverse candidates.

"It's night and day," Fitzgerald said. "This adds an element to it where we could recruit from minority and underrepresented populations and include them in the process. We were able to include the rank-and-file of the department in the process where they would have never had a role or a voice before."

"This is important. It helps to demonstrate the expectations for leadership. You have individuals who come in and who have worked in departments across the country from communities large and small."

While Fitzgerald did not disclose the finalists' names, he did tell Patch that the hope, in general, is to create a more inclusive department — noting that the department has not hired a woman officer in 20 years and has never had a Black officer.

"This speaks to that," he said of the desire for the force that more accurately represents all of the North Shore. "These are not just words to us. We are changing the way we hire in the department so that we can create a department that reflects our values not just in words but in actions."

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)